01: Pandora's Box
by Silent Elegy
Summary: When the world was young, mankind was given a box and told never to open it, but someone did anyway. Now, an encounter with the Box Ghost leaves Danny with a similiar conundrum. Can he resist opening Pandora's Box when she promises him the world?
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Danny Phantom and all related characters are the product of Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon studios. Pandora, Kat, and related characters are the product Silent Elegy.

* * *

"Burn the witch!" a dozen voices cried. They were a motley group of peasants, brandishing weapons that ranged from torches to pitchforks to kitchen knives. Two men strode forward dragging a struggling young woman between them. Amid jeers and catcalls, they roughly tied her to a tall wooden stake that had been erected for this very purpose. The girl lashed out uselessly with her feet and kicked one of the myriad logs had been piled around. She didn't even feel the pain as the heavy wood broke her bare foot; she was far too terrified.

She had done nothing to deserve this fate except spurn the advances of the local duke's son. Enraged, the young lord had publicly declared that she had placed a love spell on him, and that he barely broken free. Several of his friends had stepped forward to claim that they had seen her dancing with the devil in the woods at midnight. Bad enough, she thought, but it got worse.

Her own father had dragged her from her bed and clapped chains around her wrists. He had taken her to the village center where he threw her to the ground and called her a witch and a whore while onlookers watched and laughed. She had spent three days in the stocks being pelted with rocks and rotten food by the people she had once called friends.

Now, blinded by tears about the injustice and stung by her family's betrayal, she stared listlessly at her wounded feet until Father Mathias spoke her name. "Hope, daughter of William Thatcher," he said in a resonating tone that silenced the cries of the mob. "We give you one last chance to repent your sins and put your fate in the hands of the Lord."

"I didn't do anything," Hope whispered inaudibly.

"If you have something to say, now is the time."

She had done nothing wrong. She knew they would let her live if she admitted that she had, but she could not. She had not done those awful things they accused her of. Where was the good? Where was the justice? And then she knew.

Those things did not exist. Humans were despicable creatures who delighted in the torment of their fellows. She looked up, then, her eyes filled with hatred. "Very well!" she spat. "I repent that I once called you all my friends!"

Father Mathias nodded, and those closest to the pyre tossed their torches onto it. Seemingly oblivious to this, Hope continued. "I repent that I loved my traitorous father! I repent that I ever thought kind words about my mother!" While her father appeared unmoved, her mother drew back as though the words were a physical blow.

Hope gritted her teeth, determined not to give the villagers the pleasure of hearing her scream as the flames lapped greedily at her legs. "I repent that I did not kill that scheming Lord Nathan when he first propositioned me!" Several people gasped and looked around to where the young lord sat astride his horse, a smug expression on his face.

"I repent that I ever believed in the goodness of humanity!" She longed to scream her agony to the heavens as the flames crept up her body. Instead, she screamed, "If you want me to be evil, then your wish is my command! I will come back for you, all of you, and when I do, I will unleash the evils of the world upon you! I will reduce this hateful world to ruins and ash! Curse you, my former friends! Curse you all!"

The flames climbed past her face; the heat stole the breath from her lungs and boiled her eyes in their sockets. She thought she screamed then, but the roar of the fire was all she could hear. The pain was all consuming, and served only to cement her hatred.

Then the world went dark.

The villagers were justifiably scared by this display, so Father Mathias charged the blacksmith with building a box. It was to be iron and plated with gold; he donated his finest silver cross to be inlaid on the lid. Into this box was placed some ashes from the fire. It was locked, blessed, and the key destroyed.

They buried the box beneath the church, which burned down years later, during the Crusades. The box was found, lost, and found again; true to Hope's last words, ruin and ash followed in its path.


	2. Chapter One

It was a bright and sunny day. The only clouds that graced the sky were fluffy and white. The weather forecast announced that it would be seventy-four degrees for most of the day. There was no school; there was no homework. In short, it was a perfect Saturday afternoon.

Anyone who noticed the three friends walking towards the museum would not have been struck by how ordinary they looked simply because they looked so ordinary. The apparent leader of the trio was Samantha Manson, a girl who favored black and purple as the colors of choice for clothing, and would clearly have been quite at home in most Goth bars. To her right walked the obvious dissenter to their destination, a young black boy known as Tucker Foley, who always wore a red beret and never went anywhere without a PDA sticking out of his pocket. Finally, on the end slouched the most remarkably unremarkable member of the party, apparently just an ordinary boy named Danny Fenton.

"Look, Tucker," Sam sighed. "I agreed to go to that stupid movie with you. You are coming to the Edvard Munch exhibit with me."

Tucker muttered something about boring paintings and replied, "Will there at least be girls there?"

Danny grinned at his two bickering friends and shook his head. "Hey, don't I get a say in what we do today?"

Sam snickered. "Oh, trust me. We will end up doing your thing at some point. We always do."

"Yeah," Tucker agreed. Suddenly, he brightened considerably as a thought occurred to him. "Hey, maybe someone'll interrupt this stupid museum thing."

"They'd better not!" Sam objected. "I've been waiting months for this."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry," Danny assured her. "I don't think too many of my enemies are art connoisseurs." The cashier in the museum lobby, wondering at the boy's choice of words, gave Danny a politely curious glance as Sam paid their way in, and was subsequently ignored.

"That's because they have no sense of taste," was Sam's rejoinder as they made their way past the obligatory dinosaur exhibits. "Edvard Munch's art is practically the embodiment of the Goth mentality. The man had more angst than Friday nights at my favorite book store."

Tucker sighed and looked around as though desperately seeking a source of entertainment. However, the modern art, Crusades exhibit, and Eighteenth Century fashions did little to alleviate the boredom he was already feeling. He yawned rather conspicuously.

"Look on the bright side," Danny said quietly, torn between sympathy amusement. "The movie starts in an hour, so we won't be here long."

"I heard that!" Sam announced. "Honestly, I try to introduce a little culture into your lives, and this is thanks I get." The humor in her eyes gave lie to the resentment in her voice.

"Hey, I got plenty of culture," Tucker contradicted her.

Danny shook his head as his two friends began a good-natured squabble and turned his attention to a painting of man standing on a bridge, screaming. He thought it looked familiar, but he couldn't place it right off. A sudden chill and the sight of his breath coming out in a fog saved him from considering it further. "Uh…hey, guys?" he began. The sound of a painfully familiar voice yelling rendered any explanation void.

"I am the Box Ghost!"

Sam huffed and crossed her arms; Tucker appeared overjoyed. Danny glanced around and noted that they were alone. "This shouldn't take long," he sighed. His eyes turned glowing green and a ring of light appeared around him; it split in two to move towards his feet and outstretched arms simultaneously. The light display over, Danny now appeared in a black jumpsuit with white hair, gloves, and boots. An emblem on his chest of a black "P" inside a white "D" betrayed him as his alter ego, the ghost boy Danny Phantom.

He opened his mouth, perhaps to say something witty, but was interrupted the Box Ghost's battle cry of "Beware!" He rolled his eyes instead and, with an ironic salute to his friends, quickly flew from the room.

"Hurry back!" Sam called after him.

"No worries there," he muttered under his breath. Of all his ghostly foes, he sometimes thought Box Ghost was worst. He was certainly the most persistent and annoying in addition to being the weakest. While Danny did not necessarily enjoy having his butt kicked, it was nice to have a challenge once in a while.

He flew over the heads of some screaming pedestrians and spared a brief moment to remember how he had once been concerned when ghosts showed up. It was amazing how even the scariest of monsters seemed commonplace to him and his friends now. Then he found the Box Ghost in the Crusades exhibit and spared a second moment to cross his arms and raise one eyebrow.

"…And once I have freed you from this square container of glass," the less-than-genius spook was saying to a gold box inside a display case. "Your squaryness and boxyness will be mine and-"

"Hey, Box Ghost!" Danny yelled. He displayed a metal, thermos-like contraption and continued. "Why don't you just make it easy on yourself this time? I've got things to do."

Rather than make any sort of response, the Box Ghost gave Danny a slightly panicked look, then reached through the glass to steal the gold box and fled. "What? No parting 'Beware'?" Danny asked his retreating figure. This was not like the Box Ghost; normally he at least tried to put up a fight. He never succeeded, but he tried. Danny shrugged and rushed to follow.

The path of pursuit forced him to become intangible and fly through several walls within the museum before finally going through the ceiling and into the open air outside. Box Ghost glanced behind at Danny to yell, "I am the Box Ghost! I will not let you take my precious magic box!"

"Magic?" Danny called back skeptically. "Oh, come on! There's no such thing as magic!" The irony of a being who is not supposed to exist saying that something doesn't exist belatedly occurred to him, but he was too busy laughing at the Box Ghost to dwell on it.

Box Ghost stopped at last and whirled on the Ghost Zone's most wanted. They were near a warehouse; somehow, Danny was not surprised. "With this box," Box Ghost announced in an overly loud voice. "I, the Box Ghost, will defeat you at last! Beware!" A ghostly glow surrounded the box, and he threw it at Danny…

…who caught it…

Box Ghost barely had time for a frightened squeak as he was sucked into the Fenton Thermos by a dubious-looking ghost boy. "Wow," Danny addressed the thermos in a deadpan voice. "I'm just so defeated." He slung the strap of the thermos over his shoulder and examined the heavy gold box. It was obviously very old; the gold was scratched and had flaked in several places to reveal rusted iron beneath. An ornate silver cross adorned the lid, and a simple keyhole was built into the front. As the boy looked at it, he thought he heard whispering and dismissed it as his imagination.

* * *

"Okay," Tucker said, looking at his watch. "He's got five more minutes, then I'm going on to the theater."

"Go right ahead," Sam said. She scanned the sky distractedly. "I'll wait here for him. What do you think's taking so long?"

Tucker shrugged. "I dunno. But it's Box Ghost; he couldn't be having trouble."

"I'm here," called a voice from above. Danny, still carrying the box, flew down to hover just above his friends. "Sorry, I had to chase him halfway across town."

"What's that?" Sam asked.

"Just a box, I guess. He swiped it and ran. Let me just return it, then we'll go." He became intangible to float through the wall. That strange whispering was getting louder, but Danny continued to ignore it. He found the glass case exactly as he had left it and started to return the box, but something stopped him.

The cross on the lid seemed to glitter with a life of its own. The gold suddenly seemed to be a deeper, more pure shade. It seemed almost warm.

_I am yours…_ something seemed to say. Danny was not really sure why, but he wanted that box more than anything else in the world. It was with great difficulty that he made it intangible to set it back in its case. The whispering stopped the second it left his possession, but he still gazed at it a bit longer than was necessary before becoming human again and running out to meet his friends. The rest of the day passed in relative peace, but the box haunted the edges of Danny's mind.

* * *

_It was dark. That was the first thing he noticed. The second was the young woman who hung in the endless void before him. Her hair might have been blonde at one time; now it was singed and blackened. Her eyes were charred, smoking cavities within which glowed a light the color of burning coals. She wore a simple white gown; like everything else about her, it appeared to have been in a fire._

"_I am yours," she whispered. She held out a ghostly, glowing hand and smiled. "Only free me, and I will give you everything." He felt his arm rise almost of its own volition to brush fingertips with her._

_Suddenly, the world exploded into flame around him. Tortured screams filled his mind and ears, and a pair of black eyes stared at him from just beyond the veil of fire. He felt like he was falling, then-_

Danny jerked awake and transformed into his ghost self, then looked around in confusion. He was in his room; it was dark, but certainly not the endless void from his nightmare. Flickering orange light from outside his window proved to belong to a police car that sat parked behind a second car across the street. He dismissed his ghost form and chuckled at himself. If he still sounded a little nervous, well, it had been a scary dream.

He lay back down, but sleep stubbornly refused to return. Despite the fact that his ghost sense was not going off, he could not help but think that he wasn't alone. The image of those two eyes seemed to have burned itself onto his retinas, so that he saw them wherever he looked.

The clock informed him that it was 3:19 AM. He stared at it cantankerously and wondered how long it took for sixty seconds to go by. At last, he muttered something about stupid nightmares, became a ghost again, and flew through the ceiling.

"So glad tomorrow's Sunday," he muttered. The chill night air felt refreshing after the overpowering heat his nightmare had conjured up. He grinned and corrected himself, "No, today is Sunday." Either way, it wasn't Monday yet, and that was all that mattered.

He became invisible and flew a little lower in the hopes that he would surprise a ghost and have a nice fight that would tire him out enough that he could sleep. When the first few rays of sunlight crept over the horizon, he decided to call it a night (day, whatever) and went back home to play computer games in his dad's lab. He had zoned out over his thirtieth game of solitaire when he was brought abruptly back to reality by his mother's voice.

"Daniel Fenton! Have you been there all night?"

He jumped and turned sheepishly in his chair. "No, just a few hours. I had a nightmare and couldn't go back to sleep."

Maddie stared disapprovingly at her son for a moment more, then her face softened and she smiled. "Well, alright. Come up and have breakfast, and then you can go to the mall with Sam and Tucker."

Danny grinned and shut down the computer before following his mom back up the stairs. He arrived just in time to hear the tail end of Maddie's explanation of his whereabouts.

"You…had a bad dream?" his sister Jazz asked from over her latest psychiatry book. Her expression reflected barely contained laughter. Danny stuck his tongue out at her.

"You know," Jack, head of the household (more or less), began. "Ghosts can cause nightmares. It wasn't a ghost nightmare, was it, son?"

"I think it was just a nightmare," Danny answered without looking at his dad. It always felt a little weird to talk to his ghost hunting father about ghosts. Neither of his parents knew about his secret identity as Danny Phantom, despite all the clues he had inadvertently given over the months since he attained his powers. Consequently, they often went on long tangents about hunting ghosts with this piece of equipment or that one, all of which usually became active in Danny's presence. They had, in fact, hunted Danny himself no few times, an occurrence that he took in relative good humor since he knew that they wouldn't try if they knew about him.

He brought himself back to the conversation in progress.

"No, it'll be great!" Jack was saying. "We'll just camp out in Danny's room, and when that ghost comes, we'll use the Fenton Peeler on it!"

"Dad, it wasn't a ghost dream," Danny objected uselessly since neither of his parents seemed to be paying attention. He glared at his snickering sister, who hid behind her book.

"Honey, we won't be able to see it if it's a dream ghost," Maddie pointed out.

"Sure we will!" Jack announced brightly. He jumped up and ran down to the lab only to come running back a few minutes later carrying some new contraption.

Maddie blinked. "Honey, what is that, and why didn't I know about it?"

"I call it the Fenton Spectral-Vision Goggles," he explained happily. "They work like thermal goggles, only they pick up ghost energy instead of heat."

"And they work, do they?" his wife asked dubiously as she folded her arms. Jack grinned with all the enthusiasm of a Labrador retriever and handed over the Fenton Goggles for her examination.

"Oh, look at the time!" Danny said quickly. "Gottagobye!" He fled the kitchen at a run. He heard his mom call after him, then mutter something about how he was always in such a hurry. It was all Jazz could do to not fall over laughing.

He huffed peevishly and rubbed his eyes. Although he was usually very glad that his sister had discovered his secret, there were times when he wished she hadn't. Now was one them. He got changed, grabbed his cell phone, and fled the house before his parents could figure out where the trace ghost energy was coming from. Always assuming, of course, that his dad's invention even worked without his mom's help. Jack Fenton had some great ideas, and his inventions did usually work. Usually. But Maddie often had to help before they would. Still, it wouldn't do to risk it; his dad did have his moments.

He called Tucker and Sam, and they decided to meet at the Nasty Burger since none of them had actually succeeded in breakfast yet. The sky was overcast, perfectly suiting the boy's mood as he stared at his feet. He still couldn't get that nightmare out of his head; he could almost feel those eyes on the back of his neck.

So lost in his thoughts was the boy that he did not even realize where his feet had taken him until he happened to glance up and realize that he was outside the museum. He sighed in irritation and tried to push all thoughts of that strange gold box out of his mind. Sam and Tucker would be waiting for him by now.

He looked around and casually hid around the corner of the building to invoke his ghostly alter ego and become invisible. He flew straight up, then stopped in thought. The museum would not open for another thirty minutes; he could probably slip in and get that box without-

He angrily banished that train of thought and resumed his airborne voyage to the Nasty Burger. He was determined to have a good time with his friends today, and no stupid dreams or strange boxes were going to stop him.


	3. Chapter Two

3:19AM. Again. Danny glared at the clock as though it was the source of his odd nightmare. It hadn't scared him as badly this time around, but the feeling of eyes on the back of his neck had grown stronger. He grumbled as he turned into a ghost, grabbed the Fenton thermos, and resigned himself to another sleepless night.

An idea had started to form in the back of mind. It stated that the box was the problem, and informed him that if he would go get it and bring it home, the nightmare would stop. It added that if he opened the box, that would be even better.

Danny shook his head, slightly disturbed. The voice that had come up with that idea did not sound like his own. In fact, it almost seemed like it was coming from outside his head. But that was ridiculous.

Wasn't it?

Of course, it was. A tiny voice in the back of his mind rose up to argue that there was a ghost involved in this somewhere, and he should stay as far away from that box as possible. It was overruled by a more reasonable sounding voice that decided he should go get the box and bring it home. He could always pitch it into the Ghost Zone if it turned out to be a bad thing, and wouldn't that be for the best? After all, he couldn't just leave something dangerous lying around where people could find it and release an angry fire spirit that would destroy the world.

Danny stopped and looked around. Where that thought had come from, he did not know. But he was relatively certain that it had not been him thinking it. He suddenly realized that he was hovering above the museum and rolled his eyes. He could not get that box out of his mind! He idly wondered if this was how Box Ghost felt every moment of his afterlife, then pushed the thought away. It couldn't hurt to just go look, could it?

Of course, not.

He became intangible and flew down through the roof and the second floor until he reached the glass case containing his destin-

"Would you just shut up already?" he yelled, clasping his hands to his ears and squeezing his eyes shut. "Get out of my head, whatever you are!"

_I am yours…_

That was the voice, he realized, the one that had been trying to convince to take the box home ever since he started this trip. He dropped his hands and slowly floated forward. The box seemed even more alluring than it had when he first saw it. All signs of age seemed to have vanished; the gold flickered and twisted hypnotically. Danny shook his head to clear it. "What are you?" he muttered.

_I am yours…_

He reached through the glass to touch the side of the case, and the whispering rose up in his mind again.

…_an endless void…_

…_spiraling down…_

…_the fire, it burns…_

…_I was innocent…_

…_am I going to die here…_

…_your wish...my command…_

…_anything…the world…yours…_

…_anything…_

…_yours…_

…_I am yours…_

Danny jerked his hand his away, but it didn't stop the last three words from echoing in his mind. He never actually made up his mind whether or not to take the box; he simply looked down and realized that he was holding it. There was nothing, this time. No whispers, no hypnotic swirling. He had made his decision and there was no more need for parlor tricks.

He flew home and hid the box beneath his bed, then spent the rest of the night playing solitaire. This time, he made sure he was back in bed before his parents got up.

* * *

School was, as usual, a treacherous affair. Between dodging Dash and trying to pay attention to his teachers, Danny was not having a pleasant day. He had not yet told his friends about the strange things he had experienced; in fact, he was not even certain that the whole event had not been some strange dream. The box had left him alone for pretty much the entire day; oddly enough, he missed it constantly butting in on his train of thought. 

"Hey, Fentonowski!" yelled the obnoxious voice of school hero Dash. Danny slammed his locker shut and tried to pretend that he had not heard. It didn't work. Dash slammed his hand into the locker in front of Danny and leaned casually against it while Kwan walked up to stand behind him.

Danny sighed. "What do you want, Dash?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing," the muscle-headed jock answered. "We were just heading over to the Nasty Burger and thought we'd shove you in your locker on the way."

Danny abruptly found his arms pinned by Kwan, who lifted him up to shove him in the locker Dash had obligingly reopened. He growled irritably as they walked off laughing, and the box rose up in his mind. It seemed to mock him, to call him a coward. It seemed to wonder if he really was worthy of it, and he suddenly knew he needed to prove that he was.

The darkness of the locker was a perfect cover for becoming a ghost. Intangible and invisible, he threw himself out and dove into Dash. There was a moment when the host mind tried to throw him out, but he forced it down just like he always did. Any ghost could possess a person, but overshadowing them took talent. It was almost Danny's specialty.

He vaguely registered Kwan asking if Dash was okay, then turned wordlessly and punched him in the face. "Ow!" he yelled as he backed away and held a hand over his injured eye. "That hurt, yo! What was that for?"

"Maybe I don't like your looks," Danny answered, twisting Dash's lips into a sneer.

"Oh, yeah?" Kwan shot back, the epitome of brilliance. "Well, maybe I don't like yours either, yo!" As expected, he reared back a fist and punched Dash square in the jaw. Danny hopped out then to watch the fight that ensued. The box was pleased.

Eventually, Mr. Lancer arrived to pull the two boys apart and give them detention. They stalked angrily away in two different directions. The fight over, the spectators dispersed and Danny found a place to become human again. No sooner had he exited his hiding spot than he was found.

"There you are," Sam announced.

"Hey, Sam. Hey, Tuck," Danny greeted his two friends cheerfully. "Sorry, I was watching the fight."

"There was fight?" Tucker asked with great interest.

They started to leave the building together while Danny answered. "Yeah, Dash and Kwan got into to it for some reason. I didn't see what started it."

Sam scoffed. "Probably fighting over Paulina or something." She said the name with the utmost derision. "So you guys up for the Nasty Burger? They got this new veggie burger I'm wanting to try."

"Um, ew," Tucker replied. "Give me meat any day."

"Sounds great," Danny laughed. "Then you guys want to come play video games?"

Tucker declined on the grounds that he had been grounded. Sam shook her head. "Mom says I have to be home by five. We're going to some stupid concert or something."

"On a Monday?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah, it's some kind of mother/daughter charity thing or something. I wasn't really paying attention because I was too busy gagging at the little pink dress she's trying to make me wear."

The three fell silent as they tried to imagine Sam in a pink dress. They had seen her wear one once before, and it had been really strange. Thinking of it now, it had lost none of its shock value. "Actually, Sam," Danny began. "You look pretty good in pink."

Sam opened her mouth to retort, then changed her mind and blushed instead.

* * *

The Nasty Burger was, as usual, full of kids just getting out of school. The happy chattering of relieved teens made a nice contrast with eight hours of the seemingly endless droning of their various instructors. However, there was more to the Nasty Burger than a simple after school hang out. It was also where kids came to get the latest gossip. 

On this day, the hot topic was last night's museum theft. Uninteresting by itself, it was made news worthy by the rumor that a ghost was involved. Danny paled, but tried to act nonchalant.

"Excuse me," he asked the girl who was spreading the news. "How do they know it was a ghost?" Although he tried to seem only passingly curious, he was uncertain how well he managed. Fortunately, the girl either didn't notice or didn't care as she turned bright green eyes in his direction.

"Well, they don't for sure," she confessed. "But there were no fingerprints, no signs of a break-in, and no way to get Pandora's Box out of its case without the electronic key. Unless, of course, you were intangible."

"Pandora's Box?" Sam asked skeptically.

The girl smiled slyly. "For a burger and drink, I'll tell you its history."

The three friends conferred for a moment and decided to take her up on her offer. "After all," Tucker pointed out. "If a ghost wants it, it must be bad news, right?" Danny gave a nervous laugh as he agreed.

Once they had made their way through the line and got settled in a booth, the girl stretched out her hands for each of the three to shake in turn. "Kat," she introduced herself. "And that's 'Katrina', not 'Katherine'."

Sam grinned; she liked the girl's wry yet cheerful attitude. "Sam. And that's 'Sam', not 'Samantha'."

"Never 'Samantha'," Danny finished for her. "I'm just Danny."

Tucker held the proffered hand a bit longer than was necessary as he said, "Tucker. Tucker Foley. But you can call me anytime."

Kat arched an eyebrow as she reclaimed her hand. "Right, then. Sam, Danny, and Anytime. So! The legend of Pandora's Box." She spent a few minutes eating before she began her narrative.

"It all started in the early fourteen hundreds. Everyone was scared of witches back then or something, because they were about constantly burning someone at the stake or something else.

"There used to be a little village in England. The last known witch burning to take place there involved some chick who supposedly cursed to the village to be burned to the ground. In response, the priest sealed her ashes in a box. It clearly didn't help since the village did, in fact, burn to the ground during the Crusades. Hence its place in the exhibit."

The three friends let the story sink in for a few minutes. Finally, Danny asked, "Why is it called Pandora's Box?"

Kat grinned impishly and made him wait while she finished her Nasty Burger. "Well, there were a few scraps of record lying around somewhere that implied it was found buried under the church inside a larger box that read, 'Beware Pandora's Box.' Or something like that anyway. I think it might actually have been longer than that." She stood and tipped a nonexistent hat to her momentary companions. "It's been real, friends. Cheerio!"

They watched as she turned smartly on her heels and left the Nasty Burger. "Cheerio?" Sam muttered.

Tucker blinked. "You know, I think I asked her out once."

"You don't remember?"

"Well, it was Halloween, and I couldn't actually see her face." He grinned and shook his head. "But I definitely remember that 'Cheerio'."

They chatted about inconsequential things as they finished eating and parted company. The day had not started out that great, but it brightened considerably. Danny chose to walk home simply to enjoy the weather for a while longer. When he finally arrived, his good spirits dwindling not at all, it was to see Jazz sitting on the front steps.

"I don't think you want to go in there," she informed him as he approached.

"Why not?"

She snickered. "Mom got the Fenton Goggles to work. They've spent the last thirty minutes trying to track down the source of all the ghost energy."

Danny sighed, then a thought occurred to him. What if they looked under his bed? "Uh, I'm just going to take the back way to my room then, and get rid of this stuff. Call me when they give up?"

"No problem." She stood to walk back in as Danny ducked around the side of the house to transform into his ghost form and fly up to his room. He peeked in through the window first; at their absence, he gave a sigh of relief and flew through the wall to dump his book bag on the floor and pull Pandora's Box from under the bed. He quickly ducked back out to head for the park.

It was pretty active for the hour, but with the bird's eye view accorded him by his altitude, Danny was able to spot a lonely little area right on the edge. He landed and changed back, then set box on the ground to examine it.

It really did seem to be just an ordinary box. Granted, it was a really pretty box, or would be if it weren't so beaten up. But just a box, nonetheless. He covered the cross with his hand; nothing happened. He peeked through the keyhole; only blackness met his gaze. The only odd thing happening, in fact, was the feeling of being stared at that had returned the second he landed. As he pulled his eye away, he thought he caught a flash of glowing amber, but he couldn't see it again.

"Okay," he said. Although it felt strange to be talking to a box, he knew this wasn't just a box. No matter how ordinary it did or did not appear to be. "I'm here; I'm listening. If there's anything you want to say, now would be the time."

Nothing.

Danny sighed and started to pick the box up again.

_My power dwindles in the light…_

He yelped and jerked back. "So you are in there!" he exclaimed. He put a hand on the box again.

_Of course, I'm here, Master. I'm always here. But the light makes me weak. Under your bed was nice and dark; I could act from there. Out here, I can only speak, and then only if you're in physical contact with my prison._

Behind the words lurked the strange whispers he usually heard. He dismissed them and focused on what the voice was actually saying. "What's your name? And why does your power only work in the dark?"

_Master, I am Pandora, an innocent victim of the worst kind of treachery. I was killed in darkness; therefore, in darkness my power is at its peek. Especially at night._

Danny considered that for a few minutes. "So…you're not a bad ghost?"

_I seek merely to right the wrongs of the world. Through you, I may accomplish my task. Whatever you wish, I will give to you._

"Heh, you sound like another ghost I know. Her wishes never out that great. But…well, I guess if I could have one thing…" He considered for a moment. Did he really trust this ghost? Of course, he did. Why wouldn't he? "I wish Paulina liked me."

_Return me to my darkness and fear not my discovery. I can keep myself hidden in the dark. Tomorrow your desire will be reality._

Danny smiled and flew back home without waiting for Jazz's call. He didn't really believe that Pandora could make Paulina like him, but it was nice to dream.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I just want to say thank you to all of you who are bothering to read this thing. This is officially the most reviews I've gotten in this short amount of time, and I love you all for it. Ialso wanted to address a couple of you in response to those reviews. So:

Gamaboi427: I have never played Death Jr., although I considered renting it. I don't think my Pandora is the same as their's, though. Mine isn's even the real Pandora; she's just a chick who knew the Greek legend and decided to emulate it.

JNgirl: But Hope did give in. She said, "If you want me to be evil, then your wish is my command!"

Krin: -_shifts uncomfortably-_ Tangents? No, don't point it out. If I'm doing something right, I don't want to know. Otherwise, I'll accidentally stop doing it. But when this fic is complete, will you tell me?


	4. Chapter Three

3:19 AM. What was it about 3:19 AM? Bringing Pandora home was supposed to have stopped that, but at least, the dream hadn't come back. He dropped an intangible hand through his bed to touch the box, but Pandora seemed to be otherwise occupied. He could hear the whispers, but she refused to speak. He sighed and rolled onto his back to stare at the ceiling for a while. He sighed again and rolled onto his other side. Finally, he gave up, became a ghost, and took off.

The lack of sleep was not making his life any easier, but at least he hadn't had to fight any ghosts in a few days. That was unusual, but he wasn't complaining. His flight path this time took him by the school. He had never really seen it devoid of people before, and he was bored. It was as good an idea as any.

Casper High seemed almost creepy by night. If he had been roaming these halls before he got his ghost powers, he would have turned tail and ran. There were no lights, no sounds-

The sudden discordant noise of an old organ turned him into a liar and sent him investigating the auditorium. The theater club was preparing for their annual musical, so quite a few instruments and props had been set up, but Danny didn't think they would have any reason to be practicing at 3:30 in the morning.

At first glance, the auditorium appeared completely empty, but the continued strange yet familiar music confirmed that the ghost was still around. Disturbingly enough, whatever was in here was not setting off his ghost sense. He became invisible and drifted forward slowly. As he got closer to the organ, his non-detectable prey faded slowly into view.

The specter wore a black top hat and overcoat in the fashion of a gentleman from the eighteen hundreds. A white mask obscured half of his face. Danny clapped his hands over his mouth to stifle his laughter as he realized that his spooky "friend" was trying to mimic the Phantom of the Opera. "Hey, Mozart!" he yelled, fading back into view.

"Weber," the Opera Ghost said simply, without even bothering to stop playing.

"Huh?"

"The song I am playing is called _Point of No Return_ from the Phantom of the Opera, which was written by Andrew Lloyd Weber. Therefore, your pitiable excuse for an insult falls rather short of the mark." Now, he stopped playing and floated into the air to face Danny. "You should learn your composers."

Danny didn't respond right away; there was something a bit off about this ghost. He decided that he didn't care. "Whatever. Time to go back to the Ghost Zone, ghost!"

"And yet, I did not come from there. You should learn with whom you deal, as well, boy. It may salvage your palfrey existence one day."

Danny crossed his arms. "Alright, then. Who are you?"

His opponent doffed his hat and made a grand bow. "I am Electra, master of electricity and all things mechanical!"

No, there were two things off about this…Electra. The first and most obvious was the fact that he was actually a she. Once she tossed her hat aside and removed her coat, it became obvious. The second was her introduction. It sounded painfully familiar. Danny narrowed his eyes and decided that he did not want to know. "Okay, so, now that we've met, time to go to back to the Ghost Zone!" He retrieved the Fenton Thermos from its place slung over his shoulder and activated it; Electra abruptly vanished in a puff of blue smoke. Before Danny even had time to look around, he found himself slammed to the floor.

"It's no wonder you have so many enemies, ghost boy," Electra observed. "You are far too quick to attack a potential ally. Still, I am a gentleman and not given to wonton violence, especially against my inferiors. Cheerio!" With a tip of her absent hat and a second puff of smoke, Electra was gone, along with her discarded attire. Danny searched every inch of the school and most of the grounds, but could find no sign of her again. Disgruntled, he returned home.

* * *

"Hey, Danny." 

Danny blanched at the beloved voice so close to his ear and whirled around. "Uh, uh, Paulina! Hi! Um…"

She giggled prettily and stepped a little closer; Danny stepped back until he was practically standing inside his locker. It was all he could do to not faze through it. "You're so cute when you're nervous," Paulina breathed. "Want to carry my books for me?"

Danny sent a quiet but heartfelt "thank you" to Pandora as he delightedly accepted. He briefly thought he could smell smoke, but it was gone before he could be sure. He had other things to dwell on anyway. Like the sound of Paulina's voice, or the way her eyes lit up whenever she looked at him. He was very happy with this arrangement.

They sat together at lunch and he listened to her prattle on endlessly about nothing. They sat together in all the classes they had together; when they had to part, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and flirtatious glance. He sighed happily and did not even bother to pay attention Mr. Lancer, who pointedly did not notice.

_Anything else, Master?_ the voice of his personal genie intruded on his thoughts. It crossed his mind that it would be really nice if school were canceled so he could take Paulina to the mall. _A considerably easier task. Consider it done._

Suddenly, the fire alarm went off, eliciting groans from the entire class. Mr. Lancer briefly looked worried, but he quickly smoothed his expression. "Alright, class. You know the drill. Calmly and organized. Everyone in single file. Keep it down back there, Mr. Baxter."

"He looked kind of worried," Sam whispered to Tucker, who stood in front of her.

"Someone probably just forgot to send him the memo," he whispered back.

"Mr. Foley. Miss Manson. Quiet. Now."

The entire student body was oddly quiet as they left the building; normally, everyone talked during these drills, and the teachers had never seemed to mind. It was to the staff's credit that no one panicked and everyone survived without injury. The school did not fair as well. Although the alarm inside the school worked fine, the connection to the fire department appeared to have been mysteriously destroyed. The school was an unsalvageable inferno by the time they finally arrived.

A cheer went up among the students. "Party at the Nasty Burger!" Dash yelled. The teachers gave up trying to keep order and just got out of the way.

Danny felt a little scared as he looked at the burning building; people could have been hurt. He resolved to be a little more careful with his wishes in the future. A light touch on his arm drove all other thoughts away. "Hey, Danny," Paulina began. "Want to go to the mall?"

He grinned that goofy grin that he always got when he thought about Paulina and nodded. As they went off together, Sam turned to Tucker. Her expression was one of the utmost disgust. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to home and throw up now."

"Yeah, me, too," he agreed, though for a slightly different reason. "Man, how'd he end with Paulina? Lucky!"

Sam shrugged. "Maybe he decided to tell her. That's the only way I can think of."

"That, or she's been possessed by a ghost again."

"Well, that would be an improvement on her personality," Sam snickered. "Want to come over and watch some bad Japanese monster movies?"

Tucker sighed and shook his head. "Grounded, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. Well, see you." As they parted company, Sam shook her head and sighed. How had Danny ended with that shallow little witch?

* * *

Danny's head was in the clouds, both literally and figuratively, the entire way home. He had just come back from the best day of his life: school was canceled until they figured something else out; he and Paulina had gone on a date; and she had kissed him goodnight when he took her home. Life was definitely looking up. 

He ducked into the small alley next to his house to become human, then ran inside, up the stairs, and into his room where he dropped happily onto his bed to stare at the ceiling.

_Then the day went well despite my little…mishap?_ Pandora asked after a moment.

Oh yeah.

Danny leaned over to look under his bed. "'Little' mishap?" he repeated skeptically. "You burned down the school! People could have been hurt!"

_A thousand apologies,_ Pandora replied, the poster child for innocence._ I didn't realize how out of practice I was. I only meant to set off the alarm, not start an inferno._

Something struck him as suspicious, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Really, it was a ridiculous idea; of course, Pandora was his friend. If she said it was an accident, then that's what it was. In fact, he should open that box right now and let her out.

But he couldn't take the chance.

He smiled and leaned back again. "Don't worry about it. It happens to the best of us sometimes. At least, no one got hurt."

_Then do you trust me again? I would like to make it up to you._

She sounded honestly apologetic. "How many wishes do I get anyway?" Danny asked curiously.

_As many as you want. I am your prisoner, now, after all._

The boy cringed at that; nothing like being reminded that a friend was trapped in a box to make one feel guilty. "Sorry. I just want to get to know you better before I let you out. I just can't take the chance…" It sounded ridiculous when he said it aloud, but Pandora's mental voice radiated reassurance.

_It is of no consequence. I know that you will free me, one day…_ The inevitable whispers behind her words sounded almost frantic, panicked even. His mother called him down to dinner then, effectively distracting him from wondering why.

* * *

_The whispers were overpowering. They spoke to him of a murder most foul, perpetrated by the vilest of betrayers. Arms reached up from the ground to drag him down; the more he fought them, the harder they pulled. They whispering filled his mind with warnings until he could no longer hear himself think. It was a frantic plea, but of what, he neither knew nor cared. All he knew was that they were trying to take him somewhere, and he wasn't sure he wanted to go. He gasped as the dirt covered his face and reached out for something, anything to hold onto._

_Suddenly, a hand grasped his and he looked up into the eyeless face of his tormentor and rescuer. _Do you want me to free you from this?_ she asked._

Please, just get me out of here!_ he cried._

_The hands dropped away and the whispers changed to a mournful wail that faded into silence. He looked up to see the Amity Park skyline in flames. The woman smiled, and it was full of malice._

Danny scratched and clawed his way back to reality. He didn't even have to look at the clock to know what time it was, but he did anyway out of habit. He wondered why he should even have to sleep; he knew humans slept for a reason, but he couldn't remember what it was. Still, he was half-ghost, so he didn't think it applied. "Pandora?" he said quietly.

_I hear, Master. Your wish is my command._

_

* * *

_

A/N: Oh, sorry, JNgirl. I misunderstood your meaning. I thought you had read it wrong or something.


	5. Chapter Four

Danny stabbed his scrambled eggs irritably and tried to ignore his father's blathering on about ghosts. His parents had awakened bright and early at 7:00, and he had spent almost fifteen minutes trying to explain to them that he wasn't tired and didn't really feel like sleeping in, and yes, that was despite the fact that there was no school, and no, he wasn't sick, he just wasn't tired, really he wasn't.

"Looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Maddie remarked teasingly. Danny resisted the urge to glare; he was afraid if he looked up, he would let his eyes turn green. Auspiciously oblivious to her son's thoughts, she asked, "So what are you planning on doing today, sweetie, since you don't have school?"

Before he could think to come up with an answer, Jack interrupted. "Did they figure out what started that fire yet?"

"I'm just going to go back to my room, now," Danny mumbled. He pretended not to notice the looks of concern from his parents and was simply grateful that Jazz was still asleep.

"What is wrong with me?" he asked once he was safely inside his room again. He thought about calling Sam and Tucker, but they would kill him for getting them up this early. He toyed with the notion of calling Paulina, but he was kind of afraid that she would start hating him again at any moment. Besides, she probably wasn't up yet either. He stared out his window and sighed. Then he smiled. There may not have been any ghost attacks for a few days, but he did know of one ghost in town. He grabbed the Fenton Thermos just in case, made his excuses to his parents, and went ghost hunting.

Now, of course, the question was how to catch a ghost that didn't set off his ghost sense? If only he had some way to track spectral energy…

He smacked his forehead. The Fenton Goggles. Duh. He flew, intangible and invisible, back into the house to retrieve the goggles from the lab, then he really set off.

He began his search in Electra's last known location: the school auditorium. Although it had been well over twenty-four hours, he thought he could still pick up the trail. Of course, it was much obscured by the one he left, but he was able to catch it where it left the school grounds.

He followed the trail on a winding circuit through the city. It took him through an unusual amount of electronics stores, though maybe that wasn't so strange considering what she called herself. He also tracked her through night clubs, karaoke bars, and a grocery store. This was definitely one strange ghost. He finally found her lounging against someone's headstone in the cemetery, sans mask. He thought she looked familiar, which only served to cement his theory about her identity.

"Electra," he called.

She pushed her hat back and looked up at him. "Apologies? Or did you come back for a beating?"

"I…" he thought for a moment as he realized that he had not actually planned for this contingency. "I just want to talk." He paused again; her expectant gaze prompted him to confess, "I was bored."

She gestured at nothing in particular and said, "Pull up a headstone, then. Pardon me if I don't sound as eloquent as I did before; I'm having far too rotten a day to be in character."

"Heh, join the club," Danny laughed mirthlessly. "What's yours about?"

Electra sighed theatrically and pulled off her hat. "The fire destroyed my organ; I really liked that organ. You?"

Danny blinked. "That sounded kind of wrong…"

"Bite me, ghost boy," she answered good-naturedly.

They looked at each other for several minutes without speaking. Danny almost couldn't help but like the strange spook. And she was right; he had far too many enemies and not enough allies in the Ghost Zone. If only he could figure out why she didn't set off his ghost sense.

"Did I just say that aloud?" he asked.

"Yes, yes, you did," she confirmed, amused. "And the answer lies somewhere between the sun and the moon, but I'm not going to tell you where."

"That doesn't even make sense."

"It wasn't supposed to." She crossed her legs and propped her head on her chin. "You really are a fascinating creature. Is it true you're half human?"

"Um…does everybody know about that?"

Electra laughed and leaned back again. "Everyone knows about you, Danny Phantom. Not many believe, but everyone knows. You're like…the Bigfoot of the Ghost Zone."

Danny started to say something, then he lost track of what it was and chuckled quietly instead. "You know, you're pretty fascinating yourself. I've never met a ghost quite like you."

"Maybe I'm not a ghost," she responded mysteriously. Before he could react to that absurd statement, she continued. "Or maybe I am. Really, who's to say? Hm?"

"Right. I think I'm going to go now."

"Cheerio," she said and vanished.

Danny floated where was for a few seconds longer, then shook his head and headed back home. He wasn't sure what to think about her save that she was probably a little crazy. But at least she didn't seem to want to kill him.

* * *

"So I'm surprised you didn't want to spend today with…_Paulina_," Sam said, adding more than her usual sneer to the name.

"Her mom wanted to take her shopping," Danny replied, inadvertently confessing that he had called her first. He cringed sheepishly as Sam and Tucker glared. "Uh, that is…"

Tucker waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it, Danny. I think it's cool Paulina finally came around to the ole Fenton charm."

"Or was that Phantom charm?" Sam asked in her driest tone.

"I didn't tell her," Danny reassured them both.

"Man, but why not?" Tucker exclaimed. "She'd be all over you like…she already is…never mind."

They fell into companionable silence for a few minutes. The local ice cream and malt shop was unusually devoid of customers with most of the Casper High student body gathered to watch the remains of the school be knocked down. Danny looked around to make sure no one was near before he spoke.

"I met the weirdest ghost," he began quietly. "She calls herself Electra, and I think she may be related to Technus. She looks and sounds a little like him, anyway."

"And then you sent her back to the Ghost Zone," Tucker finished.

Danny sighed. "No, not yet. She seems really nice." At the double dose of skepticism, he continued, "Oh, don't get me wrong. I don't trust her. But if I can make friends with her, then that's one less ghost trying to kick my butt."

His friends tentatively agreed that this was logical. Sam shook her head. "She really calls herself Electra?"

Danny shrugged and laughed slightly. "Yeah, I know. And she dresses like a guy who just walked out of the eighteen hundreds. She's…really weird. Worse than Box Ghost weird."

"Is she cute?" Tucker asked.

"Tuck, she's a ghost," was Danny's dubious reply. "And probably a couple hundred years older than you."

Sam smothered laughter with her hand. "Okay, you know he's getting desperate when he wants to go out with a ghost."

Tucker was quick to defend himself. "Hey, come on! I've asked out every girl in the school and a few who weren't, and now Danny's going out with Paulina, which is so not fair…"

"You never asked me out."

"Um…we're friends," Tucker replied. "That would be kind of weird." Sam rolled her eyes. A sudden high-pitched beeping noise interrupted further conversation, and Tucker pulled out his PDA. "Oh, darn it. My folks are almost home. I gotta go!"

They said hurried goodbyes as he practically flew out the door to head home. Danny gave Sam a questioning look. "Still grounded," she explained.

"Still?"

"Yeah, apparently, his mom found out about that 'F' on the math test; he's grounded until he can bring his grades up."

Danny looked after Tucker, then back at Sam. "But…there's no school."

She shrugged. "That's Mr. and Mrs. Foley for you. He'll probably be grounded until the new school is built. Did you know they're actually trying to say they'll have it up by the end of the month?"

Danny snickered. "Yeah, right. It'll be a miracle if they have it up by the end of the year." He shifted a bit uncomfortably. "So, uh…do they know what caused it?"

"No, not yet. I heard they think an accelerant was used because it burned unnaturally hot or something like that. But they don't know for sure."

It crossed Danny's mind to hope that they never found out. He thought he smelled smoke then, but Sam was speaking again. "Sorry? My mind was elsewhere."

Sam huffed. "Probably on Paulina…"

"What is it about Paulina?" Danny demanded. "You're acting like you're jealous or something."

"Who, me?" she stammered in a botched attempt to keep her cool. "I am so not even jealous of her. I'm just worried for you, Danny; you're my best friend."

"Look, Sam, I know what I'm doing. I really wish you would just forget about her."

Sam blinked and looked down at her empty malt glass. Danny was about to apologize for being snappish when she looked back up. "So you want to go to a movie or something?" He decided this was her way of trying to make up and agreed.

* * *

Danny sighed happily as he walked Sam home. The last few ghost-free (except for one) days had almost made him feel normal again. He had forgotten what that felt like. Apparently, Sam was of the same mind. "You know, it's really nice to be able to have fun once in a while without Box Ghost or Skulker or somebody butting in. This was really nice, you know, just us."

"Yeah. Listen, Sam, I wanted to apologize. About Paulina."

Sam thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Who's Paulina?"

Danny stopped short and stared at Sam, willing her to be kidding. She wasn't. "Oh, uh…" he stammered. "No one. Nothing. Um, see you later?"

Sam gave him a confused look, then shrugged. "Sure. Bye." She paused at her door to look back, but Danny was already running. He ducked behind a car to become a ghost, then went invisible and shot into the sky. He didn't even bother with the front door, this time; he flew straight into his room and yanked Pandora's Box out from under the bed.

"Why did you do that?" he demanded, both hands planted on the sides of the box.

_You did say "I wish", Master,_ was the perturbed reply.

Danny was very sorely tempted to say a few words that would have gotten him grounded if his mother ever heard. He settled for an exasperated huff. "Well, I didn't mean it. Not that one. I was just ranting. She just made me a little mad, and I was ranting. That's all. Now, give her back her memory."

There were a few seconds of decidedly shamefaced silence before Pandora responded. _I am sorry, Master; I cannot. To wipe someone's memory is one thing; to put it all back is impossible, even for me. When knowledge is lost, it's gone for good._

Danny stared at the silver cross. Something was nagging at him, some sense that all was not right. There was something missing, something he was missing, and he couldn't figure out what.

But that was ridiculous, of course. There was nothing wrong at all. Pandora only had his best interests in mind. It wasn't her fault he hadn't been specific enough. If he didn't want the wish granted, he shouldn't have made it, after all. It really was his fault. He sighed, though whether it was irritation or dejection was up for debate, and pushed the box back under his bed. "Alright," he said at last. "It's not like its hurting her, right?"

_Of course, not, Master. Merely a few lost memories, and ones she did not like, at that. Doubtless she would thank you for the wish if she could remember to._

He laughed slightly. "Yeah, yeah. So can I wish that we'll have pizza for dinner without the kitchen blowing up?"

_Consider it done,_ Pandora replied happily.

He ran downstairs to say hi to his parents and try to explain how he had gotten in without being noticed. He needn't have bothered; his entire family was glued to the TV screen. "Oh, sweetie!" Maddie exclaimed as she noticed him. She motioned him to join them. "You weren't at the school, were you?"

"Uh, no, Sam and I were at the Cineplex," he answered in confusion.

The relief in the room was palpable. "Apparently, the fire wasn't quite out yet," Jazz explained. "When they started to knock it down, one of the trucks caught fire and there was a huge explosion."

"Was anyone hurt?" Danny asked in trepidation. At his mother's nod, his heart sank under the weight of guilt.

"A lot of the workers were hurt," she confirmed.

"And a bunch of your classmates were killed, too," Jack interjected.

Maddie hugged her son, misunderstanding his devastated expression. "It's all right, sweetie. We're just glad you're okay. Why don't we all go out for pizza and try to put all this bad news out of mind?"

Danny nodded numbly, but he had never felt less like having pizza in his life. It was his fault that this had happened, and he would never be able to tell anyone.

* * *

A/N: Electric Ammo: I don't think you're a flamer. You're kind of right, and I deliberated on that for a long time. I finally settled on using Electra because she was a key figure in Greek mythos, just like Pandora. Electra was one of the Pleides. Another story has her as being the mother of Harpies. It is also the word that inspired our word "electricity", which she is self-titled master of. Plus, look at her for a minute. She's completely spastic; its just her personality to choose such an unoriginal name.

Faith's melody: Yes, missing words is one of my biggest downfallings. My brain runs faster than my hands can type, and I can't seem to help it. I try to read through and fix all those mistakes, but I don't always catch them, obviously.

Faded Hope: Heh, I'm not telling if Kat and Electra are related, but I will explain the gentleman comment. She's dressed like and, thus,behaving as a gentleman from the late 1800's, or "in character" as she puts it. Were she out of character as sheis in the beginning of this chapter, she would have used a different term.


	6. Chapter Five

Danny drifted slowly through the night sky, goggles in place over his eyes. He needed someone to talk to, someone who wouldn't be angry with him for waking them up this late. Someone who, like he, never slept.

He found her lounging in a booth at the Hot Pink Lizard, a karaoke bar in downtown Amity Park, lacking both mask and hat this time;suddenly, Danny knew exactly who she was. He landed in the seat across from her and banished the invisibility he had used to get in. She jumped slightly, then grinned. "Are you following me?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Danny answered casually. "I just wanted someone to talk to."

Electra looked at him for several seconds, then stood and held out her hand. "Come on. Let's away to a quieter atmosphere." He hesitated a moment before taking the proffered hand. Electra grinned impishly and the world went dark.

One of Technus' many attempts at world domination had involved entering a computer game to gain access to the World Wide Web. In order to defeat him, Danny had gone into the game as well. It had felt like being inside a bolt of lightning, only without the pain one would normally associate with such a location. That was the feeling he got now, of being a living electric conduit. Then the feeling vanished and the world returned.

"Yow!" He jerked back and looked around; they were standing underneath a lamp on the top level of a parking garage. "What the heck was that?"

Electra laughed and gestured at the lamp. "That's how I travel. Much more entertaining that just flying everywhere, even if I could."

"You mean you can't?" Danny asked, turning a puzzled look on her.

She shrugged and nodded. "Pretty much. I mean, I can, but only for a limited time. So!" She sat cross-legged on the roof of a car and put her chin on her fist. "What does a half-ghost want with a gremlin like me?"

Danny sighed and turned to look at the view. Now that he had a willing listener, he was finding it difficult to begin. "What's a gremlin?" he asked, more to put off actually telling her than because he cared.

"An electric ghost," Electra answered. Several minutes went by during which neither of them spoke. Finally, she joined Danny at the edge of the parking level. "You know, I really like up here. Especially at night, when all the lights are on over there." Danny nodded silently, and she gave him a searching look. "Come on, Phantom. You didn't come see me to make small talk about my electricity fetish. What's up?"

Danny sighed again and took a few more seconds to gather his courage. "Uh…um, say I…know a guy…who might have had something to do with the fire at the school," he began hesitantly. He paused, but Electra waited. "And…say he felt really bad that it happened 'cause he didn't mean for it to…" He trailed off again, and his companion turned to hoist herself onto the concrete wall that kept people from falling off the edge.

"Would…heh, 'your friend' happen to be feeling guilty about the explosion? Maybe thinking it was his fault?" Danny nodded silently. "Would 'your friend' happen to be you?" She held up a hand to forestall his denials. "Come on, ghost boy. I come from a long line of genius scientists. You can't fool me, even if that wasn't the oldest excuse in the book."

Danny looked at his feet; suddenly, he could smell smoke. _She knows,_ whispered Pandora.

"Look," the ghost boy sighed. "Maybe this was a bad idea. I'm just going to go home."

"The explosion wasn't your fault, Phantom," Electra said. "These things happen. You can't predict the future."

_She's taunting you,_ Pandora said. The smell of smoke grew stronger. _She's waiting for you to turn your back. You can't trust her._

Danny backed away a few steps and glared. "You're planning on telling everyone, aren't you?" he demanded.

Electra tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "Don't be so paranoid. I would never do that."

_She's lying. She knows about me. Don't let her take me, Master._ Pandora's mental voice sounded on the verge of panic.

Danny narrowed his eyes and jumped into the air. "Yes, you are!" he yelled. "You want to turn me in, so you can get Pandora's Box! I won't let you have her!" Green light surrounded his hand as he charged an ectoplasmic energy beam and fired it. At the last second, a very alarmed Electra vanished in blue smoke. Danny immediately went intangible just in time to avoid the expected blow from behind and turned.

Electra was back in her hat and mask; her eyes glowed like emerald suns, and the visible part of her face reflected disbelieving rage. "So this is how the half-ghost repays my hospitality? With accusations and aggression? You will rue the day you crossed Electra!"

She vanished again as Danny darted forward to swing his fist. "I stopped being impressed by threats a long time ago," he informed her.

Suddenly, a great roar signaled the simultaneous ignition of every single vehicle on the level. All the headlights came on, effectively blinding Danny; he could just barely make out Electra hanging in the air in the middle of it all. "Then maybe this will impress you!" she yelled. She threw her arm forward, and the nearest car to Danny rose up in the air and came hurtling towards him. He shot straight up and managed to miss getting hit only to have a second car plow into him from the other side. He went intangible just in time to avoid becoming a ghost boy sandwich as the second car smashed into a third.

If anyone other than the two combatants had been witness to the battle, they would have seen Electra standing on the ground, her head tilted back to watch her prey as she levitated car after truck after SUV and threw them at high speed toward the hapless half-ghost. Danny dodged, then went intangible and threw himself through the concrete floor to come back up right in front of Electra, fists first. He succeeded in knocking her into the air; a well placed kick threw her halfway across the level. The cars dropped to the ground with a glass-shattering crash.

Electra tried to pick herself up, but Danny slammed into her a second time. She vanished in blue smoke; Danny went intangible and whirled, but she was nowhere to be found. "Yeah!" he yelled. "You better run!" He spoke too soon. All the lights began pulsing brightly and exploded one by one; in short order, Danny was plunged into darkness.

When Electra reappeared, she was crackling with stolen electricity. "You better run," she mimicked menacingly as she raised her arm as though to point. Lighting arced toward Danny; he went intangible again, but it didn't help this time. Electricity is a form of energy, after all; even intangible, it was able to shock him. He screamed and fell to the floor. Although he retained consciousness, the blast was enough to disrupt his form and turn him human again. He vaguely registered Electra's surprised gasp as he tried to pull himself to his feet.

"I know you," she muttered. "So the ghost boy is…Listen, Phantom or Danny or whatever you want to be called. I don't like violence, so I'm going to let you off. Try that again, and I won't be so nice." She walked to the edge of the level and jumped off, leaving Danny alone.

_You can't let her get away,_ Pandora said frantically.

The boy hauled himself to his feet and stumbled to the edge to see Electra strolling along the sidewalk below. He tried to change back into a ghost, but his powers appeared to have been shorted out for a while. It crossed his mind to wonder why Pandora didn't do something herself.

_I thought you'd never ask,_ she replied in malicious joy. Below, Electra screamed as flames burst into life around her.

"No!" Danny yelled. He lunged forward instinctively, but caught himself before he fell. "Why?" he demanded. "Why, Pandora?"

_We couldn't let her escape,_ Pandora said reasonably. _It was necessary. Besides, she was a ghost. It isn't as though she can die again. Come home and recover, Master._

Breathing heavily and on the verge of tears, Danny stood where he was until the flames died down into smoke. Blue smoke. The boy sighed with relief as he realized that Electra had probably gotten away alright. So wrapped up in his own thoughts was he, that it didn't occur to him that the smoke should not have smelled that strong at that distance.

He walked the whole way home; although he was exhausted, trying to invoke his ghost form was almost painful. He was both grateful and vexed that he could no longer sleep. On the one hand, he wasn't going to pass out on the way home. On the other, it would have felt so good to do so. His body ached from the shock, and he knew it was going to hurt worse later when his muscles started to stiffen. It occurred to him that not feeling any pain would be a good wish, but that wouldn't make the actual injuries go away.

Electricity must have still been coursing through his ghost form because it shocked him again when he went intangible to get through the front door. Finally, however, he made it to his room and collapsed onto the bed. He sighed as he looked at the clock to see that it read 12:39. This was going to be a long night.

* * *

If Danny paid more attention in class, he might have known that sleep is a restorative condition that humans go into to recover from the rigors of the day. It is a chance for both body and mind to heal and rest so as to be ready for the new day. But Danny had been busy staring longingly at Paulina that day.

He tumbled out of bed to change clothes and spared a moment to be thankful that his ghost form had kept his human form from looking singed. Of course, that didn't help much with the chorus of agony his muscles sang every time he moved. He glanced at the clock to see that it had gone off at some point; he wasn't very concerned about it.

The clock in the hall read 3:19. Danny stared at it for some time before it finally clicked that the clock must have stopped. It did not occur to him yet that it had stopped at the same time he would have awakened had he not wished to never sleep. Although he didn't realize it, sleep deprivation was beginning to take its toll in the form of increased difficulty in focusing.

Danny rubbed his eyes as he stumbled into the kitchen and practically fell into his chair. Naturally enough, his mother was immediately at his side. "Danny, sweetie, are you feeling okay?" she asked. She put a hand on his forehead in the ages old method of checking someone's temperature. "You're awfully warm. Maybe you should go back to bed."

"Nah, I'm okay, mom," he objected, though not very convincingly.

Maddie shook her head and clicked her tongue. "Oh, no, young man. You eat breakfast, and then you march straight back to your room and go to bed."

Danny sighed and elected not to argue. Instead, he poked at his food with his fork, eating very little.

"Hey, look at this," Jack said suddenly. Although he did not usually read the paper at breakfast (or much at all) today was an exception. He had a suspicion that all the odd things happening in town were ghost related, and he wanted to know exactly what was going on. "There was a fire at the police station early this morning. They think it was the same arsonist that destroyed the school."

"Probably trying to stop the investigation," Jazz responded.

It was several seconds before Danny realized the implications of that. Without even bothering to excuse himself, he fled the table and took the stairs to his room two at a time. "Pandora," he said as he slammed the door behind him. "Tell me you didn't do that." He pulled the box from its hiding place, the better to address her.

_Of course, not,_ she replied, sounding quite affronted. _I would never do anything like that. _Danny raised an eyebrow, and she amended, _On purpose._

He sighed and relaxed against his bed. Things didn't add up. Rather, they did, but he didn't like the sum.

But that was ridiculous. Pandora was his friend. She would never lie to him. He shook his head as it crossed his mind that he was a pretty rotten friend for leaving her trapped in that box. He should open it.

_Release me,_ she whispered. _Release me, and I will give you everything. I will give you the world._

As though in a daze, he put his hand on the lock and made it intangible. He had just touched the lid with his other hand when the door opened. "Danny," Jazz said tentatively. "I just wanted…Is that the box from the museum?"

He shoved it angrily under his bed and stood. "Geeze, don't you ever knock?" he demanded. The sudden smell of smoke was lost on him.

"Danny, did you steal that?" Jazz asked, coming the rest of the way into his room. "Why?"

The boy ground his teeth. "Just butt out."

"I'm not going to do that. Danny, you haven't been yourself lately at all, and I'm worried."

"Well, stop worrying! I know what I'm doing!"

"I'm your big sister. It's my job to worry." She walked further into the room, worry inscribed in her every movement. "Danny, you need help."

He clenched his hands into fists and let his eyes turn green. "Leave me alone! Honestly, sometimes I wish you'd just disappear!" He gasped suddenly and clapped his hands over his mouth. "No! I didn't mean-"

Jazz gave a frightened squeal as she faded from sight. Behind her stood an apparition he had thought was only a nightmare.

"Your wish," Pandora said ominously, "is my command."

* * *

A/N: I would like to thank Kraven the Hunter for the end of this chapter. I'd been trying to figure out how to make that work pretty much since the prologue, then you mentioned someone close to him finding the box and everything just clicked into place.

ArcherofDarkness and Callie: I'm still debating whether or not to explain Electra in this story, but rest assured, you will find out eventually.

Faded Hope: He was basically wishing that he wouldn't have to sleep anymore. But, as you read earlier, sleep is necessary to rejuvinate the body. Without it, you experience irritability anddifficulty thinking. Some say paranoia, as well, but I think that's just a rumor. Also, exhaustion debilitates the mind's normal defenses against manipulation, making poor Danny an easy target for Pandora to exploit. As to the specific time, I'll go into that later.

Electric Ammo: "Your wish is my command" is a typical genie tagline; that's why it sounds similar. Although, Pandora isn't really a genie, she pretends to be one as part of her plot. And no, the similarity was not lost on me, although it was not intentional either. But it was necessary for the way the plot worked.


	7. Chapter Six

"Bring her back!" Danny yelled.

The smoking, empty sockets that were her eyes blazed with fire. She laughed, low and evil. "I don't take orders from you, _Master,_" she sneered. "Because you freed me, you alone will be immune to my retribution." The smell of smoke became overpowering, and Danny finally realized that it was actually the smell of burning flesh. Pandora burst into flames that quickly engulfed the room. Danny fearlessly charged past her.

"Mom! Dad! There's a ghost!" He jumped from the top of the stairs to the bottom. "Mom, you have to-" He slid to a stop at the sight that met his eyes. The kitchen was in flames; Pandora was already there. Hanging in the air behind her, as yet unharmed, were the inert forms of his parents.

"So now you think to undo the harm you've caused?" the vengeful fire spirit asked in her most scathing tone.

"I haven't done any of this!" Danny exclaimed. "It's been you!"

"Oh, no? I did only what you asked, little boy. And now you have released me, I can finally destroy this hateful, evil world."

"You're not going anywhere! I'm going ghost!" The ring of light that signaled the beginning of his transformation vanished suddenly as a tongue of fire lashed out to knock him across the room. He tried to pull himself to his feet, but burning restraints appeared around his wrists and ankles, pinning him to the floor.

Pandora watched his struggle for a few moments. "Well, I'm not without some mercy," she said, although her tone said otherwise. "Perhaps you should get some sleep."

A second blow, this time to the head, rendered the abused boy unconscious.

* * *

_He spiraled down into an endless void. Flames lapped at his flesh as a dog does water, and voices whispered all around him. They spoke to him of betrayal, of despair, of hatred. Suddenly, he knew what the voices had been trying to tell him all along, if only he had listened._

"Danny?"

_Pandora was evil. She wanted nothing more than to destroy the world that had betrayed her trust. And now, he had freed her to do just that. Nothing was safe from the flames that had once consumed her._

"Danny! Wake up!"

_Hands reached out from the darkness to pull him down, but this time he didn't struggle. They were only trying to help._

He blinked several times to clear the fog from his eyes.

"Danny, are you okay?"

Tucker's voice. He shook his head and pulled himself to a sitting position. "Ugh…Tucker?" he asked vaguely.

"Right here, man."

Sam appeared on his other side and grasped his hand. "What happened here?"

Danny shook his head again. "You guys should run," he answered. "Get as far from town as you can. This was my fault."

His friends looked at each other over his head, but he didn't need them to prompt him for the story. "I robbed the museum," he confessed. "There was a ghost in that box. I thought I could trust her, and I let her out."

"Is this Electra?" Sam asked. She and Tucker helped Danny to his feet.

"No, I can trust her. This one's name is Pandora."

"Um, that probably should have tipped you off," Sam pointed out.

"I wasn't thinking. Look, just run. As fast as you can." Danny became a ghost and looked despairingly at both of his friends. "I let this thing out. I've got to put her back."

"Maybe we can help," Tucker offered.

"You can't. Even if you could, this is my responsibility. Please, guys. Just run."

After a few moments, they complied, but Sam turned back. "Danny, I…I…" She bit her lip and blushed. "Good luck." Then they were gone.

Danny smiled; no matter what else happened, they had always been his friends. "Now," he muttered, back in business mode. "If I were a ghostly, opera-loving techno geek, where would I hide?" He knew he would never beat Pandora on his own; he needed help. He just hoped Electra would hear him out before she tried to kill him.

The Fenton Goggles had been destroyed with his room, meaning he would have to look for her the old fashioned way. He sighed with impatient worry and shot straight up through the smoldering remains of his home only to stop again with a dismayed gasp at the nightmare come to life. The entire neighborhood had been devastated by Pandora; the city skyline was in slowly spreading flames. Danny shook himself out of his shock with some difficulty; there was no time to loose.

Flying at his fastest speed, he made his way through every location he could remember from the last two times he had tracked her down; few of them were still standing. He checked the cemetery and found nothing. He even checked the school, although he knew she wouldn't be there. He had just resigned himself to taking on Pandora alone when he realized he hadn't checked her favorite parking garage yet, and had to smack himself for the oversight.

He did not honestly expect her to be there, but there she stood, completely without guise for once, sadly watching as the flames engulfed her beloved city. "Electra!" he called.

When she saw who it was, her eyes and hair sparked with barely contained electricity. "You again?" she demanded.

"I'm sorry!" he said with the utmost sincerity as he landed. "I was stupid and paranoid and I haven't been sleeping well and…I'm sorry! Please, I need your help!"

Electra glared for a long time, but his obvious distress finally swayed her. "Is this about that?" she asked coldly with a sweeping gesture at the ravaged city.

Danny swallowed around the lump in his throat and took a breath. Red-faced from shame at his own shortsighted stupidity, he told her the whole story, every humiliating word of it. He stared at his feet throughout the telling, and refused to look up even once he had finished. He was afraid she wouldn't help, or worse, that she would just try to kill him anyway.

"Long ago," Electra began after a protracted silence, making Danny jump slightly. "When the world was young, mankind was given a box and told never to open it. One woman, named Pandora, thought the box must contain great riches for the gods to want to keep it closed. She let greed and curiosity overcome her and opened the box."

"And released evil into the world," Danny interrupted. "And that's exactly what I've done."

Electra put a finger under his chin and forced him to look her in the eyes. "Would you quit flapping your jaw and listen? Yes, once she opened the box, all the evils of the world escaped. And although she tried to close the box again, evil was far too strong and got through anyway until there was only thing left: hope.

"From what you've told me, this Pandora's weapon of choice is not fire, but metaphor. You can use that to your advantage."

"But how?" Danny wailed hopelessly. "She's too strong; how do I put her back in the box?"

Electra rolled her eyes theatrically and gave an over exaggerated sigh. "Weren't you paying attention? You don't! You can't fight evil with force, but you can fight her with hope."

"So, you won't help?"

"I just did. Like I said, I abhor violence. You've got what it takes to beat her, all by yourself, Phantom. You'll see."

Danny looked down at his feet again and clenched his hands into fists. Pandora had taken away everything; his parents, Jazz, his home, his town…She wasn't going to get away with it. He looked up, his eyes filled with new purpose. "Thanks, Kat," he said, and launched into the sky.

Kat raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly. "And Dad says he's completely brainless…"

* * *

"Just as soon as I get out of here," Jack yelled from the confines of a fiery cage. "I'm going to make you wish you'd never heard of me." 

"I already do," Pandora answered scathingly. "The only reason you're still alive is because I need hostages." She turned her blazing eyes back to the beautifully destroyed city and spotted Danny. "There you are," she muttered. He flew over her head to land between her and his parents.

"You!" Maddie exclaimed. "I should have known you'd be involved in this somehow!"

"Yeah," Danny agreed. "I'm the one trying to save you." He turned back to his quarry. "Pandora, stop this, now! Before anyone else gets hurt!"

The enraged ifreet merely expanded the flames surrounding her and laughed. "Before anyone gets hurt?" she mocked him incredulously. "Maybe you should have thought of that before you started making requests of me, you greedy little boy."

"I didn't know you were going to do those things!" he protested. "If I had-"

"And just how, pray tell, did you think I was going to make the love of your life fall in love with you? You didn't think. You never even asked what I did to her; you only cared about the results."

Danny opened his mouth to protest, then realized she was right.

"And the school? Oh, so concerned were you that you went straight to the mall without even letting your mother and father know you were all right."

"No, I…" Again, he was forced to trail off.

"And the explosion, well, you didn't even bother to ask if I was responsible for that one."

"Why?" he whispered.

"Oh, come on, Danny boy! Use that brain for thinking of something besides girls! You've been wishing those boys would get their comeuppance since the moment you laid hands on my prison."

Danny's breath caught as he realized that he probably knew the names of single kid was killed. "And the police station…" he muttered, although he already knew the answer.

"What better way to stop an investigation?"

"All this time I thought I smelled smoke, it was you. My nightmares, you. Why?"

Pandora floated into the air to look down on him; she almost looked like an avenging angel with a halo of fire. "I was killed in flames because there is no good in humanity. I will destroy humanity in flames because there is no good left in me. And I will start…with them." She pointed past Danny to his parents, and a dozen whispers spoke into his mind with a single voice, _Stop me!_

"No!" he yelled, and lunged forward to obey the voice of Pandora's discarded humanity. She caught him as effortlessly as she might have a rag doll, and tossed him aside in much the same way. He watched his parents cower together as they must have realized their time was up. "Pandora, stop!" he yelled, on the verge of tears. "Take me instead!"

He didn't really expect Pandora to stop. He certainly didn't expect her to turn. "What did you say?"

"Take me," he repeated. "I'm the one who let you out. It was my greed, my stupidity. I deserve to die, not them. Just let them live and take me instead."

Pandora's flame faltered as she looked between the frightened humans and the despairing ghost boy. "You would…sacrifice yourself…?"

"Yes!" he cried. "If it means you'll let everyone else live, I'd do it in a heartbeat!"

"There…is good left…" she muttered. Her flames died completely, and she looked at her hands as though she had never seen them before. "What have I done?" She buried her face in her hands, then screamed as the flames sprang up around her. Danny lunged past her to rescue his parents, but he got caught in the blaze.

It burned for only second, and he was plunged into darkness. He looked around frantically for some sign of anything, and his eyes fell on the smoking, charred figure of a lost child. She looked up at him with her eyeless gaze. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. A tear slid down her soot smudged face.

"Pandora," Danny began, but she shook her head.

"My name…is Hope. Hope Williamsdaughter. Or, I guess, you'd say Hope Thatcher now."

Danny let out his breath in something that was half sigh and half amazed laugh. "When all the evils escaped into the world," he muttered. "Hope was left in the box."

"And now you've freed that, too," she agreed. "I thought there was no good left in the world. You've shown me what a fool I've been all these centuries. Let me give you one last wish." She held out her hand; hesitantly, he took it.


	8. Epilogue

He was not particularly surprised to see that the clock read 3:19 AM. He was surprised that it read anything at all considering the melted state it had been in when last he saw it. He sat up and looked around, then looked back at the clock. 3:19 AM. The moment Pandora had been born all those years ago. Had it all been a dream?

He lunged out of bed and tore down the hall to throw open the door to Jazz's room. "Jazz!" he exclaimed happily.

She sat up quickly and looked around. "What? What?"

"You're okay!"

She looked at him incredulously before throwing a pillow directly at his head. "Danny, get out of my room!"

He laughed and threw the pillow back at her. "Alright, alright," he acquiesced. "I'm going. I just glad you're okay."

"Of course, I'm okay. Why I wouldn't I be?"

Danny shook his head. "It was nothing. Sorry. I'm going."

Back in his room, he stood uncertainly just inside the door, then ducked down to fish around under the bed. The gold-plated iron box was nowhere to be found. He stood, looked around, and sighed. "Maybe it was just a dream…" he muttered.

"No, not exactly."

Danny whirled to face the intruder, already back in ghost mode and ready for a fight until he realized who he was looking at. "Clockwork?" he asked uncertainly.

The ghost master of time smiled as he shifted from his young form to his old one. "Your friend Hope can be very persuasive when she wants to be," he explained. "I've agreed to reset time back to before this all began."

"One last wish…" Danny muttered. "Thanks, Clockwork. And tell Pan…er, Hope thanks, too."

Clockwork shifted to his adult form and bowed slightly. Then he was gone, and Danny was alone.

* * *

"Look, Tucker," Sam sighed. "I agreed to go to that stupid movie with you. You are coming to the Edvard Munch exhibit with me." 

Tucker muttered something about boring paintings and replied, "Will there at least be girls there?"

Danny looked around, slightly on edge. He was not sure exactly what was going to happen today, but he refused to be caught a second time. "Hey, Danny?" Sam asked, intruding on his thoughts. "Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I just had a really weird dream that's kind of bothering me."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Sam asked as she paid their way in.

Danny shook his head and just listened as his two friends began to rehash much the same conversation they had the last time he was here. As they passed the Crusades exhibit, he tried to see to Pandora's Box, but it was hidden from view around a corner. He glanced around, not really interested in the artwork, until his ghost sense informed him that it was show time.

"I am the Box Ghost!"

Sam huffed and crossed her arms; Tucker appeared overjoyed. Danny checked that they were alone out of sheer habit before becoming his ghostly self. "This shouldn't take long," he said with slightly more confidence than he felt. In fact, he knew exactly how long it was likely to take. He headed out barely a second before Box Ghost shouted his tagline and didn't pay much attention as Sam called, "Hurry back."

"…And once I have freed you from this square container of glass," the less-than-genius spook was saying to Pandora's Box. "Your squaryness and boxyness will be mine and-"

"Hey, Box Ghost!" Danny yelled after a moment to reflect on the _déjà vu_ of the situation. "Just step away from the glass case and-" Box Ghost did not even wait for him to finish speaking; he reached through to take the box, as Danny was afraid he would, and fled. "Aw, come on!" Danny wailed. "Not again!"

He went intangible to chase his quarry around the exact same path he had taken once before. As expected, moments after they got into the open air, Box Ghost looked around to yell, "I am the Box Ghost! I will not let you take my precious magic box!"

Danny didn't bother to respond. He had decided that it would simply be best to see this thing through to its preordained conclusion at a warehouse halfway across town. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with Pandora's Box when he finally got hold of it, but he hoped it wouldn't involve fighting her again. Once had been more than enough.

After what seemed to be an eternity, they reached their destination. "With this box," Box Ghost predictably announced in an overly loud voice. "I, the Box Ghost, will defeat you at last! Beware!" A ghostly glow surrounded the box, and he threw it at Danny…

…who caught it…

There was nothing. No whispers. No ethereal warmth. No smell of smoke or burning flesh. Danny breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that Pandora was gone for good, and tossed the empty box back to the spectral thief. Box Ghost looked incredulously between his prize and his foe. "Go on," Danny sighed. "I'm feeling generous this time."

Box Ghost took one last look at Danny as though he had lost his mind, then gleefully shouted, "Beware!" before fleeing back to wherever he made his real world home.

"I'll get him next time," Danny said to no one in particular.

* * *

Somewhere in the Ghost Zone, there is a place where time doesn't move, and where it moves in all directions at once. It is a place both outside of time and at time's very core. It was in this place that a young spirit of fire turned away from the images laid out before her. "Thank you, Master of Time," she said. "For everything. For fixing my mistakes." 

Clockwork laid an elderly hand on her shoulder. "You are quite welcome, Miss Thatcher."

Hope sighed and laughed slightly. "You really do see everything, don't you?"

"Of course. I have known this day was coming since I watched you die. I'll admit I was getting a little worried that Danny wouldn't pull through. But I'm not surprised that he did. That boy has a good heart and a lot of potential."

"He certainly does," Hope murmured as she turned back to see him one last time.

"What will you do now?" Clockwork asked from his adult form.

Hope grinned. "As though you don't know."

He grinned, as well, and they shook hands like old friends. "I'm not going to be watching you anymore, Hope. You're on your own from here on out."

The ifreet sighed happily at the thought of her freedom. "I'm going to wander here for a while, I think. I need…time."

Clockwork nodded. "Well, I wish you well."

* * *

Danny yawned tiredly. It was three in the morning, but this time he was awake by choice. He never thought that he would be so happy to see the inside of Casper High, not in a million years. He hovered outside the auditorium for a while, listening to the eerie music that emanated from within. There was a long pause, then the discordant strains of _Point of No Return_ rang out. He went intangible and headed in. 

Just like the last time he was here, he was unable to see Electra until he got close to her. He wondered how she achieved that effect, and why she would be using it when there was no one around to impress. Although, she was the daughter of a mad man…mad ghost…? Danny grinned. "Hey, Weber!" he called out.

Without stopping or even bothering to look up, Electra said, "Well, well. A boy who knows his composers. I should stand impressed were I not sitting."

Danny laughed. "It's Kat, isn't it?" he said, although he already knew. "Katrina Technus?"

Kat froze, then looked up suspiciously. "Cadwell, if you'd like to be technical about it. Have we met?"

"No, not yet. I've seen you around, though." He held out his hand. "Danny. Danny Phantom."

Kat vanished in a blue smoke to reappear directly in front of him. She took the proffered hand and grinned. "Electra. Electra Technus."

"I know your dad," Danny mentioned.

"I know you do," she replied, finally confirming what he had already surmised. "I must say. He says you're a brainless hothead, but I see none of that here. What can I do for you, ghost boy?"

"Oh, nothing." He shrugged. "I just wanted to introduce myself."

Kat (or Electra or whatever she preferred to be called) smiled brightly. "Well, then. Until we meet again, Phantom. Cheerio!" With a tip of her hat, she was gone, and so was Danny to go back to bed. Insomnia was overrated.

* * *

A/N: And that's all she wrote, folks. I don't usually make them this short, but then, I usually write for sixtyhour long video games. Writing a long fic about a thrity minute TV show without letting it drag is tough. But don't worry. I'm already working on my next one. I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed; you people are awesome.

Elegy 10-10-2005


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